The Venture Forward is launching a blockchain platform in Princeton

The rise of cryptocurrencies – digital money with no central authority – has coincided with a series of previous technological revolutions, ranging from the printing press to the internet, each of which has resulted in significant changes in the distribution of political and economic power in society. The blockchain platform that underpins cryptocurrencies, is decentralized, it opens the door to new sorts of contracts and communication platforms and other breakthroughs and societal transformations.

“Power has always been disrupted by technology, but blockchain platform offers a novel platform for doing so.” “Thinking broadly and thoroughly about the applications it enables is very exciting and crucial as we also develop discoveries that push the frontiers of the technology itself,” Andrea Goldsmith, head of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, said.

The program will be anchored in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Still, it will involve innovators and researchers from various fields, including social sciences, public policy, economics, and the humanities. It will speed up fundamental research on decentralization’s underlying technologies and the societal implications of those technologies. This work will help establish a lively atmosphere for teaching and learning about these technologies and their consequences.

“I am appreciative for this remarkable group of alumni’s foresight and generous contributions.” President Christopher L. Eisgruber said, “These donations enable Princeton to undertake a pioneering research endeavor with the capacity to illuminate the impact of the blockchain platform and its potential societal ramifications.” “The effort will lead to a deeper understanding of the possibilities of this crucial new technology, thanks to Princeton’s unique commitment to multidisciplinary research and teaching.”

The blockchain platform is a distributed digital log of transactions open to all to administer and view but safe against fake entries. Several companies use blockchain to create and manage contracts, for example. Blockchain is seen by some as the foundation for the future generation of the internet, dubbed Web3, in which divergent individuals create content, such as social media posts, and control and operate distribution systems.

Lubin, who graduated from Princeton with a degree in electrical engineering and computer science, stated that one of the main goals of the gift is to use Princeton’s strengths in engineering and the social sciences. “It is a powerful technology that has the potential to completely revolutionize the internet’s economic and social model as we know it.” Over the last two decades of digital progress, our collective awareness of both the benefits and dangers of digital technology has vastly improved. The rise of Web3 provides civilizations with an opportunity to take stock and assess how this new era of digital innovation might best serve their population.

Also, read – Blockchain Smart Contracts got legally recognized at Iowa House

“We must build Web3 in a way that is sustainable and well-governed, dispersed and robust, as well as open and participatory,” Lubin stated. “The social sciences take a critical role in defining a vision for how Web3 might achieve these goals, as well as identifying the principles that should govern our innovation to ensure that Web3 can best serve communities throughout the world.”

According to Jaswinder Pal Singh, the initiative’s leader and a professor of computer science, such decentralized technologies could be transformative for society. That new, highly collaborative research is critical for deploying the latest technologies in ways that maximize benefit while minimizing harm.

“How to establish agreement or consensus among a dispersed group of entities who don’t trust one another has long been an issue in computer science. “How can you persuade people that something is true?” Singh, who is also a co-founder of a blockchain-based startup, explained. “The bitcoin blockchain provided a unique and powerful solution to that challenge. For the first time, it has enabled people to agree that something has happened and to build the essential confidence without the need for a centralized authority, using open-source technology.”

Companies are developing a range of new technologies, including decentralized finance (also known as DeFi). While the effort isn’t aimed at promoting cryptocurrencies or any specific use of the blockchain platform, it will help to improve research in this rapidly growing sector. He claims that this has ramifications for currencies and a variety of assets, information, and government.

“We’re only at the beginning of our understanding of the opportunities and problems connected with these technologies and their applications,” Singh added. “Trust decentralization could be as powerful and transformative as the internet.” It can potentially change existing systems and lead to new applications we can’t even envision now, with far-reaching societal implications. We must be involved in technology and its applications and the economics, governance, and policies linked with them, and we must do so in collaboration with industry. Fundamental, interdisciplinary research and teaching, as well as close engagement with the fast-moving startup ecosystem, will be required to get it right.”

The decentralization initiative at Princeton will accelerate three areas of research:

• The underlying engineering behind the blockchain platform and related technologies
• Innovative uses of the technologies outside of finance and economics, such as voting and news
• The societal implications of such technologies

“It’s such a cross-cutting set of applications,” Goldsmith explained, “that it’s perfectly tailored to Princeton because we have great strength in all of these application areas, we’re emerging as the center of a regional hub of technology entrepreneurship, and we have a tradition of educating students who work and think across disciplinary boundaries.” 

“Because the blockchain platform is moving at a rapid pace, bringing a diverse group of experts together with the developers who are developing these platforms is crucial for students and society.”

Princeton researchers will also collaborate with external entities, such as technology businesses, to bring discoveries to market and convene academics and thought leaders regularly to discuss the implications of such technologies.

According to Goldsmith, Princeton’s already strong research groups in networking, consensus algorithms, optimization, game theory, cryptography, and data structures will work together on the engineering side. Implementing the study will include cross-disciplinary cooperation in fields such as economics, finance, policy, and the humanities, both inside and outside of Princeton.

“We’ll be weaving together engineering achievements with the transformative applications of those new platforms, as well as recognizing the societal ramifications of those technological shifts,” Goldsmith explained. “This is a fantastic opportunity for Princeton to take the lead.”